Learning to Coordinate over Networks with Bounded Rationality

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how bounded rationality affects network coordination, showing that regular networks optimize coordination probability and providing bounds on rationality needed for effective collaboration.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework connecting bounded rationality, network structure, and coordination success, highlighting the optimality of regular networks.

Findings

Stationary probability of coordination increases with rationality parameter β.

For K-regular networks, coordination probability increases with degree K.

Optimal network structure for coordination is K-regular, with evenly distributed connectivity.

Abstract

Network coordination games are widely used to model collaboration among interconnected agents, with applications across diverse domains including economics, robotics, and cyber-security. We consider networks of bounded-rational agents who interact through binary stag hunt games, a canonical game theoretic model for distributed collaborative tasks. Herein, the agents update their actions using logit response functions, yielding the Log-Linear Learning (LLL) algorithm. While convergence of LLL to a risk-dominant Nash equilibrium requires unbounded rationality, we consider regimes in which rationality is strictly bounded. We first show that the stationary probability of states corresponding to perfect coordination is monotone increasing in the rationality parameter $\beta$. For $K$-regular networks, we prove that the stationary probability of a perfectly coordinated action profile is monotone in the connectivity degree $K$, and we provide an upper bound on the minimum rationality required to achieve a desired level of coordination. For irregular networks, we show that the stationary probability of perfectly coordinated action profiles increases with the number of edges in the graph. We show that, for a large class of networks, the partition function of the Gibbs measure is well approximated by the moment generating function of Gaussian random variable. This approximation allows us to optimize degree distributions and establishes that the optimal network - i.e., the one that maximizes the stationary probability of coordinated action profiles - is $K$-regular. Consequently, our results indicate that networks of uniformly bounded-rational agents achieve the most reliable coordination when connectivity is evenly distributed among agents.